October 2009

October 30, 2009

I have a confession to make. When my husband is out of town, I might very likely serve my kids pancakes for dinner. Mind you not just any pancakes, really healthy ones with just a dash of powdered sugar to elevate them to the level of "treat" This pancake recipe is one I made up all by myself, and is quite flexible as far as quantity and ingrediants. The main thing with pancakes is not to make the batter too watery, and to use some baking powder to make them fluffy.

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup instant oatmeal

1 container plain yogurt or even white cheese (leben) works!

3 eggs

1 envelope baking powder

milk necessary to obtain batter consistency

Instructions:

heat a non-stick frying pan with a small amount of canola oil, when pan is hot, spoon spoonfuls of batter into the pan. Flip when done on bottom side and remove from pan when second side is cooked.

October 29, 2009

For those of you who have just joined us, and don't know anything about the amazingly creative Roberta Rose, or why she's been chosen as an Inspiring Mom, you can read the two previous posts here and here.

This post is about the other side of Roberta Rose, the side that I've manged to keep a secret thus far, but that makes her even more inspiring. This may not surprise you, but Roberta Rose is not only a great craftswoman she's also raises farm animals (on a small scale)!

I just loved how the Roses are using their children's former play area (complete with play house and climbing equipment and a small farm shed) as a paddock for the animals!

And just in case you were wondering what that bird was in the previous photo, well here's a closer look,it's a turkey! Want one of these in your backyard?

I just loved these white ducks, though they were a bit camera shy.

And the rustic farm aesthetic of this shed just seemed so in keeping with their home.

This is a goat! Sorry about the quality of the photo, she just wouldn't stay still.

Here's a shot inside the former playhouse turned mini-barn. Even the goats got their house decorated — with a collection of old license plates.

What on earth is this? You ask? Well, the Roses raise Angora goats on a small scale and just purchased this Angora goat buck to ensure that there will be some baby goats in the spring. Check out those horns! You gotta be pretty brave to bring home one of these guys in your van, even if the van is a rental!

Well, I'm sorry to say, that's it for the photos of Roberta's wonderful home, but we do have the interview with Roberta to look forward to, (coming soon) and believe me, it's great reading! Until then, all the best to each and every one of you. And do take a few moments to leave a comment, you'll make my day!

October 27, 2009

If you visited the blog last week then you will surely be excited to see that I've posted part two of my Inspiring Moms: Roberta Rose. Roberta's home and creativity greatly inspired so many last week, and now I think we're ready once again for a little dose of Roberta's magical and unique interiors! You can read a little about Roberta in Part 1 and how I came to interview her here.

Today I'm going to focus on Roberta's amazing kitchen. And let me just say that as I entered the kitchen I was overtaken by a wonderful smell and wondered what she was cooking. Then I realized that she had a pot of spices simmering on the stove purely to enjoy the fragrance! This is one of those tricks they tell people to do when potential buyers come to their for-sale home, and let me tell you, it works! Though I wonder now if the fragrance kept me from noticing everything! Even looking in the background of this photo I realize now that there were some details I didn't catch, like the contents of those cupboards! But lest I digress, I absolutely loved this antique (French, I believe) chandelier the minute I set my eyes upon it. That blue glass is something else! And those beaded bulb covers, I've going to try and make some myself. I'll let you know how it turns out!

This little vignette in the corner was oh so charming and seemingly effortless. Flowers from the garden are casually placed in the enamel pitcher paired with the dainty pink china and green glass dishes. This is a still life composed by an artist without a doubt!

I just love these aged frames and her choice of artwork— a page from an old cookbook with some frilly cakes, and a painting of chickens. No matchy-matchy stuff going on here!

Look at this wall sconce and those hanging baubles.....I have no words left to describe its loveliness!

Here's a photo of one side of the kitchen, whoops, forgot my black camera bag there on the counter. Roberta incidentally has a room specifically designated for all of her husband's "black" stuff, namely the electronics, computer stuff and anything else whose aesthetic is clearly out of place in this home! Good idea Roberta, and thanks to the husband for being such a good sport! And I just now noticed that that's probably a dishwasher hiding over there to the left of the sink!

I just love Roberta's collection of this contemporary enamel ware, she's got it all over the kitchen, and it's perfect.

And just in case you were wondering, there's the fridge over there pretending not to be a fridge, and the unobtrusive white telephone that I'm sure Roberta would love to mosaic, hey that's not a bad idea!

Okay, I felt a bit silly trying to take a photo of this dish towel that hung on Roberta's oven handles, but I just couldn't resist. Blue toile fabric, hand-embroidered with colorful details. This is a great idea with so many possibilities, can't wait to try it.

A few more wonderful details.........

And now I leave you with this last lovely image, the table just outside the French doors leading from the kitchen to the back yard, a wonderful spot for a morning cup of coffee, let's go!

Okay, I don't know about you, but that's definitely enough inspiration for today! I still have an amazing interview with Roberta to share with you as well as a few photos of just what's happening in her back yard, so stay tuned.

October 26, 2009

When my children first brought home artwork from school using modeling clay on paper, I have to admit I didn't quite get the point. We never did anything like that where I'm from! Isn't modeling clay for making three dimensional objects, I thought? A few years have passed and I have come to appreciate the simple joy of smudging the clay around on a piece of paper—a tactile experience that isn't so messy, with cute results!Younger children who haven't yet mastered coloring can produce works of art that they'll be happy with, while older children can get a bit more creative and make free form pictures with no lines to fill in.

On my recent trip to the United States we even worked on some pictures like these on the airplane! It was the perfect project. A few pieces of paper and a small package of multicolored modeling clay takes up very little room, the only question is what to do with the picture once it's finished. Hmmm.

My daughter made the picture of the house on a blank piece of paper, while the koala bear started out as a black and white line drawing.You'll Need:

modeling clay, the cheapest you can find

computer paper or thin cardboard or bristol board

line drawings from coloring books or drawn yourself

white glue (optional, only for more advanced projects that you'd like to save)

How To:Show kids how to take small pieces of modeling clay and start pushing and smudging them around to fill the spaces. To preserve works of art created on very heavy paper or bristol board, use a paint brush to apply a coat or two of white glue!

October 25, 2009

Fall is here, and even though we don't get much fall color in my part of the world, I still love the idea of craft projects depicting colorful leaves. I don't have too much to chose from as far as projects with actual leaves, but we do have felt and cardboard, which is all you'll need to create this project! Make one or more as decorations for a baby's room, or even a wonderful seasonal centerpiece, or do the project together with your children. Older kids can do the whole project from A-to-Z while younger children can certainly enjoy decorating a tree that you assemble for them.

You'll Need:

thick cardboard (not corrugated) or bristol board (i used a cereal box, but a bit heavier would be better, and plus the other side of my tree looks like a tree that ate too many bran flakes)

felt in a few fall colors

glue

brown electrical tape from the hardware store (optional, only used to stablize the base because the cardboard I used wasn't thick enough!)

How To:

Following the diagram below, draw one tree pieces and cut it out

Use this first piece as a template, and trace around it for the second piece.

Make a second tracing if desired to have on hand if you'd like to make more identical trees.

Cut slits in trees, according to dotted lines on diagram.

Assemble tree by slipping the tree with the slit at the bottom over the tree with the slit at the top.

Apply glue to areas where two pieces meet if necessary, or stabilize bottom with stripes of brown tape.

Cut out appropriately sized leaves from felt and attach to tree with glue.

October 23, 2009

This is one of my favorite recipes, my interpretation of something I once saw in a Moroccan cookbook. It's one of those recipes that turns out great regardless of whether you have exactly all the ingredients. So give it a try, and it just might become a favorite in your house too!

Ingredients:

Serves 8-10 (3 meatballs each)

For meat balls:

500g ground meat

500g ground chicken or turkey

2 eggs

1/2 cup (or more) instant oatmeal (or breadcrumbs)

1 large onion

1 tblsp of each of the following: paprika,cumin, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped cilantro or parsley finely chopped(optional)

optional: you can easily hide a cup of grated zucchini in these meatballs if needed!

optional: stretch the quantity by adding some grated potato and more oatmeal with another egg.

For Sauce:

1 cup tomato paste, or less paste and more tomatoes

5-6 cloves garlic chopped

1 peeled tomato

1 red pepper chopped

1 tblsp of each of following: paprika, turmeric, cinnamon

a dash of salt and pepper

Directions:

Make sauce first, so it has time to cook while you assemble the meatball mixture. Saute garlic and add additional ingredients to pot. Add water to make slightly thick sauce. Bring to boil and simmer, adding more water if necessary

For meat balls, assemble all the ingredients and mix thoroughly, it's easiest to mix with clean hands! You can make this mixture ahead of time and refrigerate for a few hours if necessary. Once sauce has cooked for at least 15-20 minutes start rolling meat balls and placing them into boiling sauce. Cook for one hour, turning if necessary. I recommend using a very wide low pot for this such that the meatballs cook in the pot in one layer. This prevents meatballs from falling apart if for some reason the mixture isn't dense enough, and you'll have a nice thick sauce to serve with the meatballs, rather than having to cook them in a soup like liquid.

These meatballs freeze wonderfully, and this recipe might be enough for two meals depending on the size of your family, and how much of these they gobble up. Plus, they are delicious cold in a sandwich!

A note about whole wheat spaghetti: It's really quite delicious! Get rid of the white altogether and your kids will adjust, believe me, especially when you serve it with something with lots of sauce. And Mom, you'll feel so much better knowing that they're eating something much healthier, especially for those picky eaters who only want plain spaghetti!

October 22, 2009

Fall is my favorite season, well it's a tie between Spring and Fall actually, but I just love the cozy Fall feeling after a hot summer! And Fall color, well there's nothing like it! It just so happens however that the lovely area in which I live has very little Fall color to speak of— just a few trees here and there, nothing significant. Nonetheless, I wanted to do some Fall leaves projects with my kids and thought maybe we could find something if we looked! So we took a walk down into the valley near our home, and this is what we saw:

Did you know that cattle crossings are good for developing motor coordination and building self confidence?

Does this qualify as Fall color? Spooky burned branches and some golden lichen(or whatever it's called)?

We turned the corner and look! Real, actual Fall leaves, phew! My kids didn't understand why I was so excited, so I tried to explain to them that this is what Fall is all about in places like New York where their cousins live. I showed them how fun it is to stamp on dried leaves, but i guess I was a bit too serious, as later my six year old asked me if stamping on leaves is something written about in the Torah (Bible)! Isn't he cute?

And alack alas the leaves were too dry to be useful for any craft project, so we didn't take any home with us.

But guess what? I was so relieved when it turned out that we wouldn't be going home empty handed! The kids found some gorgeous rocks with iron ore deposits and other interesting colors! We lugged them all home and I realized that they'll be great for supporting the narcissus bulbs I hope to be forcing soon!

And to be perfectly fair, these beautiful weeds and this sunset certainly qualify as Fall color! A creative mom has got to work with what she has! Right?

October 21, 2009

The beautiful home of Roberta Rose (featured here) has one very important quality that pulls it all together.The walls serve as a subtle yet gorgeous backdrop, injecting a softness, an elegance, a touch of somethingrustic all at once! The technique she has used is called glazing with a ragged finish.

Decorators often bring in experts to achieve this look, however, you can do it yourself for about $100 for an average sized room, or much less if you've recently painted and the walls are clean.

Keep in mind that there are two main points for successful glazing: knowing how to apply the glaze and what colors to combine for beautiful results. I'd say go for something on the subtle side and you can't go wrong. And if you aren't happy with the results, don't worry, glazing has no texture and can easily be painted over.

Wall
glazing employs two coats and is reasonably done over a period of two
days. The first day a coat of base
paint is applied. On the second day at least one coat of colored glaze
goes on. Professionals apply a coat of glaze and then remove portions
of the glaze with scrunched rags and cheesecloth to create a harmony
between the base coat and the glaze. Roberta on the other hand simply
applies the glaze in one step with a rag! I've provided you with instructions provided by professionals, and Roberta's short-cut method. You choose which way to go!

Before tackling an entire room, I would recommend trying
this technique out on a small area, like an accent wall, or in a small
powder room. It's worth the extra effort to do the big spaces after you already have some experience.

Mix the oil-base paint, glaze medium, and paint thinner according to manufacturer's instructions on the glaze can.

Working one small wall at a time, apply
the glaze using the "weenie" roller. But first run roller across screen in bucket to remove excess. Using an alkyd brush, the second person should try to cover any areas not reached by the roller: working glaze into corners and along any trim, and lightly daubing
brush over any uncovered areas.

Glaze is partially removed with a rag balled up in your hand immediately after application. Though don't panic, you have about 30 minutes of working time. (Glaze is fully dried in about four hours). One person presses a balled cotton rag into the wet glaze to create
a rough, ragged look, remembering to rotate the rag to avoid patterns. The other
follows behind with the cheesecloth blotting gently to soften edges.

If you are working on a large wall, apply glaze in sections, and don't rag the entire glazed area. Leave a 12 inch vertical strip of glaze at the
edge so that you'll be able to blend this section in with the next section after the
glaze has been applied to it.

When glaze has completely dried you can opt to add another coat of glaze with a different color, apply another layer of the same color for more intensity.

When you are satisfied with the results let glaze dry completely before attempting to remove any masking tape. Important: Score the edge of the tape with a putty knife to break areas of overlapping glaze or you may end up removing some parts of the glaze with the tape!

Any glaze that has leaked beneath tape can be removed with a rag dampened with paint thinner.

Roberta's How-To:Roberta does her walls in a much simpler fashion, which I must say appeals to me! If you want your walls to look like aged stucco, use the professional how-to above, if you'd like a more painterly casual look try this way. An imporant point to consider is that Roberta uses latex paint for the whole job, which makes for much fewer fumes and easier clean-up!

Here is what Roberta does, in her words:"The base layer of all of my walls is a white latex paint with an eggshell finish. I then mix some colored latex paint with a glaze. (The glaze can be purchased in the paint department of most hardware stores). I then take a rag or a sponge and dip it into the colored paint. I just wipe the paint onto the walls. It's almost like washing the walls, but with a color rather than a soapy rag. Sometimes I'll use a few different colors on the same wall and I just let them merge together."

Which ever method you choose, have fun transforming your home into something that will give you joy!If you are renting or afraid to commit to something like this, try it out on some huge primed painter's canvases (either stretched on a frame or unstretched) and hang those on the wall, it could be stunning!

October 20, 2009

When I was editing the photos for my CJM Inspiring Mom series featuring Roberta Rose's work and home, it occurred to me that a great follow up to the original post would be some posts describing how to do some of the projects in her home! Good idea right?

And since we've been on a bit of a mosaic binge here on the blog lately, I'll just continue the trend for one more day or so! And in any case, wouldn't you like to know how she did this tiny dresser? A project of this size is a good one for starters, attempting to do a huge chest of drawers when you've never attempted to mosaic furniture, might just be a bit too ambitious! And do take into consideration that this type of work isn't exactly quick— it's the type of thing to realistically work on over a period of a few weeks or so, in a spot where you can make a mess and are not near any food preparation. (Read Health Precautions For Mosaic Projects that Roberta helped me out with here.)

This chest looks just lovely set againg her blue color washed walls and works well with the pastel colored scheme Roberta has established in her home. Though beautiful here, this chest would look totally out of place in my "Moroccan meets Farmhouse in the 60's" style home, because it's just to cheerful and delicate! But that doesn't mean I couldn't use this technique to do something that would look great. I would need to use either earth toned dishes with bold ethnic patterns, combined with lots of beige or go for a totally shiny gold Moroccan palace look!

My point is, that before embarking on a project of this size, one definitely needs to take into consideration what will work in their home! Enough said.

Sand piece of furniture all over with medium grade sand paper. New unfinished furniture should be sealed, though it's not mandatory.

Begin by planning your design. If you'd like to incorporate patterns into your work, so you need to plan them ahead of time. If you'd like to cover the furniture in a seemingly random sea of broken dishes that needs a bit of planning too as far as what works together, and quantities of each color.

Take into consideration whether to leave drawer hardware and hinges intact or to remove. If you remove the hardware mark the exact area that needs to be left empty for re-attachment.

If you will be using a pattern, draw it onto your furniture with a permanent marker.

To break dishes or tiles, place them in plastic bags, wrap them in an old towel, and put on your goggles. Using your hammer, break the ceramic into pieces. To create specific shapes or sizes, use tile nippers.

It is best to lay mosaic pieces on a horizontal surface, namely turn a chest on it's side to do the side panel, etc. Each section of work should be given ample time to dry (according to manufacturer's instructions) before turning the piece, so plan accordingly. Don't feel you must follow this advice, if you want to work on the whole piece while it is standing up, go for it—after all kitchen back-splash tile is certainly installed vertically.

Start working on laying the mosaic pieces. It is generally recommended to do the outside edges first and then fill in the rest, this applies to a top or drawer front as well as a shape.

Apply tile adhesive to the area you will be working on and press pieces into the adhesive. Or you can opt to apply the adhesive to the piece of ceramic and then press onto the piece of furniture. Some mosaic artists lay a bed of adhesive on the surface and apply adhesive to the tile. I would recommend doing this in tricky areas such as legs or thin edges.

Lay pieces close together but not butting for a finer look, and for a more rustic look, make spaces between mosaic pieces larger. Cut small slivers to fill in any large holes, and make sure there are no rough or sharp edges sticking out. If there are, remove potentially dangerous pieces.

When you have covered the entire piece of furniture with mosaic double check to make sure you are happy with the placement. You can still pry off pieces with a screw driver and replace them with something else if desired.

When entire piece is dry start applying sanded grout using a spatula or a gloved hand. The grout should cover the entire surface, such that the mosaic tiles are hidden. Check to make sure all holes are filled.

After grout has set (check manufacturer's instructions) use a damp cloth to rub grout off the tiles. Use a toothpick to reveal tiny corners where necessary.

Before doing any mosaic projects, especially those employing broken pieces of tile and pottery, please read this. No need to panic, just be informed.

It is very important to wear eye protection when cutting china or glass— whether breaking pieces with a hammer or a tile nipper. Small pieces can fly into the air and enter eyes! Don't take chances with this one.

It is also important to know whether the china you are working with contains lead in the glaze. Most newer pieces have no lead, but many of the older pieces do. Before breaking, placing pieces that may have lead in them in a plastic bag cuts down on any lead dust that might be dispersed into the air.

Do not work in the kitchen, or near any food preparation areas because of dust mentioned above.

Put lots of disposable floor protection under work in progress to make the cleanup more efficient.

Periodically wipe whole work area surfaces with wet paper towels that will disposed of immediately to get rid of any possible lead dust.

It is also good to cut any china or pottery in a plastic bag because the process of cutting usually releases some dust from the clay used to make the piece. There are questions as to whether the clay dust can cause lung issues.

Anyone doing this work occasionally would probably not be risking their health, but if someone plans to do extensive mosaic work, these issues should be taken seriously!

Disclaimer: There may be other risks involved as well, such as getting cut, or who knows what, so don't take this advisory as the end all. Please use good judgement and especially if there are children around!